Ithaca College Theatre Announces the 2000-2001 Season

Ithaca College Theatre's 2000-2001 season will consist of six productions from a wide spectrum of musical and dramatic theater. The price of a season ticket for all six performances ranges from $24.00 to $42.00, giving subscribers a discount of up to 20 percent off single ticket prices. Subscribers also get first choice of seats, special invitations to studio shows and senior directing projects, and other benefits. For a season brochure and additional information on ticket prices and discounts call Brian Falck, audience services manager, at 274-3915.

The season kicks off on September 28 with a comedy proposing a new twist on the traditionally tragic Shakespeare works Othello and Romeo and Juliet. Good night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), by Canadian playwright Ann-Marie MacDonald, offers some "secrets" of the bard during a fantastical journey to Cyprus and Verona. Constance, an overworked, underappreciated English professor, is preparing her doctoral thesis. She has chosen to argue that Romeo and Juliet and Othello are really comedies, not tragedies. So she literally immerses herself into the stories, searching for the voice of the author, her own identity, and proof of her theory. The production runs September 28 through 30 and October 3 through 7.

A Little Night Music will follow. Called "a jeweled music box of a show" by Time magazine, this six-time Tony Award winner reveals a story of upper-crust Swedish society members and their entangled relationships. The Stephen Sondheim score, described by the New York Times as "a gift," includes the classic tune "Send In the Clowns." The story centers on "A Weekend in the Country" (another of this musical comedy's terrific tunes), when old loves are reviewed, new liaisons are formed, and the waltz continues on with new partners. This production runs October 26 through 28 and October 31 through November 2.

Longtime family troubles hang in the air in Lily Dale, a realistic drama by Horton Foote. Horace Robedaux has been called to his mother's house for a short visit. But the early return of his stepfather, Pete Davenport, cuts his stay even shorter. When Horace falls ill with a fever on his way home, he is sent back to the family place. In his fever-induced delirium, some truths come out and he admits his real feelings about Mr. Davenport, his sister Lily Dale, and the death of their father. Lily Dale runs November 30 through December 2 and December 5 through 9.

This season's opera production, L'incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea) was Claudio Monteverdi's last work. Mythology and history mix in this baroque-period opera. Two goddesses make a wager, interfering in the lives of humans and affecting the entire Roman Empire. Emperor Nero, whose power comes from his wife, Ottavia, has a new love, Poppea. To see Poppea crowned empress of Rome, he must cast aside Ottavia and order the suicide of his friend and adviser, Seneca. The opera will run February 22 through 25.

Side Show, a musical by Bill Russell and Henry Krieger, features the world of Daisy and Violet. The lives of these Siamese twins are forever altered when two men discover their musical talent and pluck them from a carnival tent to sing on the vaudeville stage. In this recently staged Broadway musical, the two women experience the pain of ostracism but discover love and fame. This musical will run March 29 through 31 and April 3 through 7.

The season will conclude with The Trojan Women, by Euripides. While the city of Troy lies in ruin at the hands of the Greeks, the surviving women burn with fury and outrage. They have watched their city, their culture, and their men perish at the hands of the Greeks because of one woman's beauty. This classical Greek play examines the horrors of war from the perspectives of the defeated. "None of the classic Greek tragedies is more poignantly human or speaks to the modern world more meaningfully," wrote a critic for the New York Post. This production will run April 26 through 28.

The single-ticket price range for all regular performances is $4.50 to $9.00. Preview performances are available at a lower ticket price. Evening performances will begin at 8:00. Matinees will be at 2:00 on Saturdays, except for L'incoronazione di Poppea, which will have its matinee on Sunday.